Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Local Government Finance

Lord Blunkett: To ask His Majesty's Government what their total financial contribution to local authorities in England will be in the financial year 2023–24 for (1) revenue spending, (2) capital investment, and (3) one-off grants, specifically excluding any funding towards local authority expenditure raised locally.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England. Where locally raised council tax is excluded the figure is £25.7billion.The only one-off grant introduced into the Settlement was the one-off funding guarantee to ensure that every council sees at least a 3% increase in Core Spending Power next year before any local decisions on Council Tax rates. However, not all funding to local government is provided through the Settlement. For example, the Government is providing capital funding including through the second round of the Levelling Up Fund which will see £2.1billion of taxpayer subsidy provided to 111 local infrastructure projects across the UK. Alongside this, there is the annual Public Health Grant at a total of over £3.4 billion per annum, amongst many other grants.

Freeports: Wales

Lord Jones: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for establishing of Free Ports in Wales.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: The UK and Welsh Governments are committed to delivering the benefits of Freeports in Wales, supporting the regeneration of communities in Wales by attracting new businesses, jobs, and investment, as well as growing the Welsh economy.An announcement on the outcome of the Welsh Freeports competition will be made in Spring 2023.

Listed Buildings: Solar Power

Baroness Scott of Needham Market: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the consent regime for the installation of solar panels on Listed Buildings.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: In the Government's British Energy Security Strategy, published last year, we committed to reviewing the practical planning barriers that households can face when installing energy efficiency measures, including in conservation areas and listed buildings. An announcement on the outcome of the review will be made in due course.

Treasury

Pension Funds: Advisory Services

Baroness Altmann: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to adopt the Competition and Market Authority’s recommendation of December 2018 to make investment consultants advising on pension funds subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority; and if so, when.

Baroness Altmann: To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the regulation of investment consultants for pension fund investors, including the regulation of their net zero and sustainability strategies.

Baroness Penn: The principal finding of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) 2018 Investment Consultants Market Investigation report was that the investment consultancy and fiduciary management market was insufficiently competitive, leading to adverse impacts for their customers. One of the recommendations of that report was that investment consultants should be brought into Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulation. In the March 2019 response to the recommendations of the CMA’s final report, HM Treasury committed to consulting on the CMA’s recommendation that the FCA’s regulatory perimeter be extended to cover the activities of investment consultants. A number of other priorities, including the urgent work required to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, meant that the work to develop this consultation has been delayed. However, a number of other recommendations made by the CMA to address competition in this market have been taken forward, such as the Department for Work and Pensions’ legislation requiring pension scheme trustees to carry out a competitive tender for fiduciary management services. HM Treasury works closely with the FCA and has held regular discussions with them on this matter.

Stamp Duty Reserve Tax

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask His Majesty's Government whatplans they have to update the Stamp Duty Reserve Tax legislation so that the growth market exemption applies to regulated recognised growth markets that are not part of a recognised stock exchange.

Baroness Penn: As with all aspects of the tax system, the Government will continue to keep this legislation under review. However, there are currently no plans to extend the recognised growth market exemption from Stamp Duty Reserve Tax to markets that are not part of a recognised stock exchange.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Islamic State

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to a Daesh member being convicted of genocide by the German Federal Court of Justice, what plans they have torecognise the Daesh atrocities as genocide.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The UK strongly condemns atrocities against the Yazidis in Iraq. The decision to uphold the verdict against the Daesh member sends a strong signal to the international community and we are considering the implications under HMG's genocide determination policy. We will continue to do our utmost both to end violations of international human rights law and where appropriate, international humanitarian law; and to prevent the escalation of any such atrocities and alleviate the suffering of those who are affected.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Fruit and Vegetables: Shortages

The Lord Bishop of Exeter: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made ofthe causes of fruit and vegetable shortages in UK shops.

Lord Benyon: The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response and is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Defra is closely monitoring markets and supply chains to explore the factors that have contributed to ongoing supply chain pressures, including requesting weekly data from supermarkets on supplies of the foods affected to ensure we have the latest available data. We know that some supermarkets have applied item limits to a small number of fruit and vegetables due to poor weather affecting the harvest in Spain and North Africa, where a high proportion of produce consumed in UK at this time of year is grown. Minister Spencer met with major retailers on 27 February to discuss the current supply issues, their procurement contracts with growers and how to work together to find solutions. Supermarkets are confident their supply chains will return to normal over the course of this month.

Gun Sports: Lead

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the paper by R E Green, M A Taggart, D J Pain, et al ‘Voluntary transition by hunters and game meat suppliers from lead to non-lead shotgun ammunition: changes in practice after three years’, published in the Conservation Evidence Journal in February, which found that three years into the five year voluntary phase-out programme, 94 per cent of pheasants sold in supermarkets were killed with lead shot, what steps they plan to take to end the use of lead shot in hunting in England.

Lord Benyon: In 2020, nine high-profile shooting organisations released a joint statement calling for an end to lead in ammunition used for taking live quarry with shotguns within five years. We welcomed this move away from lead and are committed to ensuring a sustainable, mutually beneficial relationship between shooting and conservation. In Spring 2021, Defra asked the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency to prepare a UK REACH restriction dossier for lead in ammunition. This required both organisations to consider the evidence of risk posed by lead in ammunition on human health and the environment, and therefore, the case for introducing a restriction on lead in ammunition. HSE published restriction proposals in May 2022, setting out a range of options for introducing restrictions on lead in ammunition, and opened a six-month consultation. In January 2023, due to the large volume of consultation responses, HSE announced a six-month extension to its review process, to allow for due consideration of responses to inform the development of its final recommendation. The HSE final opinions are now expected by 6 November 2023. The Defra Secretary of State will be required to make a decision within three months of receipt of the opinions, with the consent of Welsh and Scottish Ministers.

Roads: Pollution

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering: To ask His Majesty's Government whatassessment they have made of the level of pollution caused by surface water runoff from highways into the sewers; and what plans they have to hold the highways authorities responsible for the pollution caused in this way and to eliminate the contribution of these sewage overflows in future.

Lord Benyon: We have not made an assessment of surface water runoff from highways into sewers. The amount of surface water entering our combined sewers network is dependent on the spread and intensity of rainfall. This is incredibly variable and therefore it is not possible to determine the relative contribution towards pollution from storm overflows from highway drains alone. As outlined in the Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan HM Government will work with water companies and relevant stakeholders to better manage rainwater and assess the role of highway drainage as a rainwater drainage system.

Plants and Seeds: Imports

Baroness Hoey: To ask His Majesty's Government whether, under the Windsor Framework, individuals in Northern Ireland will be able to import seeds and plants from Great Britain.

Baroness Hoey: To ask His Majesty's Government what administrative requirements a business in Great Britain sending seeds or plants to an individual in Northern Ireland will need to comply with under the Windsor Framework.

Lord Benyon: Instead of full EU certification, all plants and seeds will move under a similar mechanism to the UK-wide plant passport scheme, in line with traders throughout the UK. That means rather than paying £150 per movement into Northern Ireland, growers and businesses serving NI consumers can pay £120 a year to be part of the UK scheme, as they did before the Protocol came into force. Scheme membership allows traders to print official labels for plants moving within GB, and under this new scheme, to NI. These seeds and plants will be delivered to a registered business to be able to be sold onto NI consumers. This process will be virtually the same as what is needed for plants moving from Cardiff to Birmingham now.

Sugar Beet

Baroness Andrews: To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the rate of Virus Yellows in sugar beet.

Lord Benyon: The rate of incidence of YV may vary year-to-year, influenced by environmental conditions. The rate is not yet known at the time of planting sugar-beet, however. There is a means to predict the scale of threat. That is through the YV incidence prediction model developed and run by Rothamsted Research. This provides, a forecast of the level of YV infection that will be reached in August, in the absence of any plant protection intervention. Making the prediction on 1 March allows the model to take account of preceding winter temperatures, which are important in determining the likely incidence of YV. Forecast for Yellows Virus incidence from Rothamsted Research for 2023 is 67.5%.

Soil: Sustainable Development

Baroness Kennedy of Cradley: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to support farmers and growers in using nutrient cycling to build soil resilience.

Lord Benyon: We agree that healthy soils should be a priority outcome for our new environmental land management schemes in England, and to help achieve our commitment to sustainably managed soils by 2030, we are already taking action to support land managers and farmers to achieve sustainable soil management. We are focusing on soil in two of the first standards that have been rolled out under the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme in 2022: the Improved Grassland Soils and Arable and Horticultural Soils standards. As soils are one of the most important natural assets, these two standards are focused on improving soil health, structure, organic matter, and biology. These improvements can benefit food production. They also contribute to a range of environmental and climate change outcomes, including better water quality, climate resilience and biodiversity. We already pay for actions to support the sustainable management of soils through the SFI Improved Grassland Soils and Arable and Horticultural Soils standards. These actions are: completing a soil assessment and producing a soil management plantesting soil organic matteradding organic matter to arable and horticultural soilsminimising bare ground over winter on improved grassland by having no more than 5% of the total area of land entered into the standard left bare over winterminimising bare ground over winter on arable and horticultural land by having no more than 70% of the total area of land entered into the standard left bare over winterestablishing and maintaining herbal leys on at least 15% of the improved grassland land in the intermediate level of the standardestablishing and maintaining a winter cover crop on at least 20% of the arable and horticultural land in the intermediate level of the standard We are also rolling out a Nutrient Management Standard in 2023, which will include actions such as complete a nutrient management (NM) assessment and produce an NM review report with the help of crop nutrition adviser; establish and maintain legumes on improved grassland; and establish and maintain legume fallow on arable land. The actions aim to help farmers to assess and review ways to minimise use of artificial fertiliser, maximise the use of natural sources of nitrogen and improve their nutrient efficiency. Additionally, the actions will help provide food for farmland wildlife, such as pollinators and farmland birds.

Seed Potatoes: UK Trade with EU

Baroness Kennedy of Cradley: To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on restoring the export and import of seed potatoes between the UK and EU.

Lord Benyon: Defra continues to view lifting the EU prohibition on GB seed potatoes as a priority, and we continue to raise this issue in our engagements with EU SPS officials, most recently at the Trade Partnership Committee in December. HM Government challenged the TCA compliance of the EU’s prohibition and repeated our desire to find a solution to resume trade. The UK restated our request for a risk assessment underpinning the EU’s position and while the EU indicated that this request is being examined by EU services, they did not give a timeline for a response. In relation to imports, a number of applications on marketing equivalence are under consideration.

Fisheries: South Atlantic Ocean

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote a regional fisheries agreement for the South Atlantic.

Lord Benyon: The UK government is concerned about gaps in international fisheries governance in areas of our ocean and fish stocks not covered by Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMO), including the South West Atlantic. The UK plans to raise this issue for discussion in a variety of international forums this year, including the Resumed Review Conference on the UN Fish Stocks Agreement. Establishing new agreements which would bring about more robust governance arrangements is likely to be a lengthy process. As a first step, and more immediate solution, we will be encouraging distant water fishing nations and coastal States to share scientific data in areas where there is no RFMO.